“Improvements are needed” to monitor and respond to conflicts of interest in the acquisitions process of the federal insurer of bank deposits, the agency’s office of inspector general said in a report released Tuesday.
In its report, the OIG said the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) “does not require all employees involved in the acquisition planning and approval process to assess and document potential or actual conflicts of interest.”
Instead, the agency watchdog said, the FDIC (following federal regulations) places primary responsibility on agency workers to self-identify and avoid conflicts of interest.
“While FDIC guidance requires reasonable planning for all procurement actions, the identification and description of conflict of interest- related risks are not specifically required,” the OIG noted. “Absent additional internal controls throughout the acquisition lifecycle, the FDIC may not be equipped to identify, analyze, respond to, and monitor for potential or actual conflicts of interest in the acquisition process.”
The report also asserts that the FDIC Ethics Unit “has not established specialized ethics training requirements beyond the initial new employee and annual ethics training but will provide specialized training if requested by FDIC Program Offices.”
Regarding confidential financial disclosure review, the OIG said those could be enhanced by “ensuring financial disclosure review guidance contains clear instructions for evaluating financial disclosure forms for completeness and by training Deputy Ethics Counselors (DEC) on the enhanced guidance.”
The FDIC could enhance its approach by reevaluating the seniority, position descriptions, and number of personnel appointed as DECs, and by developing an action plan to address DEC survey responses, the report stated.